My Lost Youth: Longfellow's Portland, Then and Now

Looking on Munjoy Hill from what is now the Evergreen Cemetery site, one can see in Goodhue's remarkable sketch the earthworks on the left with Fort Sumner to the right of it. In the foreground is the Sands, Lent, and Co. Circus, which visited in July of 1847. Built in the year of Longfellow's birth, the prominent Portland Observatory dominates the horizon.

According to Greater Portland Landmarks' "Munjoy Hill Historic Guide," "In the field between the Observatory and the Eastern Cemetery, 19th-century Portlanders gathered for 4th of July celebrations, militia musters, political conventions, circuses and, in 1808, a public hanging."

For further explication of this [and all Goodhue's sketches], please see <em>Mr. Goodhue Remembers Portland: Scenes from the Mid-19th Century</em> by Earle G. Shettleworth, Jr. and William David Barry.